Triopia edges West Central by a point

CONCORD — Wins have been hard to come by for the young Triopia boys’ basketball team this season. Friday’s certainly was.

But Triopia sophomores Isaac Werries, Grant Duesterhaus and Blake Lawson all made key plays down the stretch as the Trojans knocked off West Central 37-36 at Triopia.

Each team made nine 3-pointers, most of them in the first and fourth quarters. The Trojans improved to 3-9.

“Oh, man, that was crazy,” said Werries, who finished with a game-high 17 points. “It was kind of a battle of the threes. I mean it was a slow-paced game, kind of low scoring, but we slowed it down, moved the ball, kept the turnovers to a minimum and it helped us win.”

It was a turnover that helped the Trojans win. With less than a minute to play and the score tied at 36, Werries zipped the ball into the lane, but the pass was picked off by West Central’s Luk Weder. But Werries got the ball back at the other end before West Central could take a shot, jumping to deflect a pass off a West Central player and out of bounds. That gave Triopia the ball with 10 seconds to play.

“I caught the ball and threw it behind my back to save it from going out of bounds,” Werries said. “I’d just made a turnover, so I was looking for the ball. They’d been throwing it down to that corner all night. He was telegraphing the pass, so I jumped it and threw it before going out of bounds.”

Triopia inbounded the ball to Lawson, who was fouled immediately. Lawson made the first of two free throws to give Triopia a 37-36 lead.

West Central’s Kobie Hoover took a 3-point shot at the other end that missed. Hoover fell to the court, no foul was called, but the ball went out of bounds to West Central for one last shot with one second left. Trevor Cawthon caught the ball near the top of the key and fired a quick shot that missed, and the game was over.

It was a crazy game. Werries scored 10 points in the first quarter, including two threes, as Triopia broke out to an 18-16 lead. Austin Martin and Griffin Greene also hit threes in the quarter for Triopia.

Then the game ground to a standstill in the second and third quarters. West Central outscored Triopia 6-2 in the second quarter to take a 22-20 halftime lead. Each team scored three points in the third quarter. Triopia coach Mike Lewis said his team wasn’t trying to slow the game down in the middle two quarters; the Trojans were just looking for good shots.

The shots started flying again in the fourth quarter. The two teams traded five threes in succession, the last by Duesterhaus to give the Trojans a 35-33 lead.

“The first quarter we kind of came out hot, and then we slowed it down and then we felt the intensity there at the end,” Werries said. “It was just kind of back and forth, you know; three and then another three, and it was just back and forth. But, yeah, it was a good game.”

The two teams traded four turnovers with less than two minutes left. Werries was fouled on a drive and made a free throw to give Triopia a 36-33 lead, but Hoover made a three with 53 seconds left to tie it.

Werries made four 3-pointers for the game.

“I was feeling it tonight,” he said. “I was out there in warmups and I was just drilling ‘em and then came out … Some nights you’re hot, some nights you’re not, and tonight I was.”